That being said, here's my take:
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| Prisoner Of My Desire - Johanna Lindsey |
The crazypants plot set-up starts off with Lady Rowena's superbly evil stepbrother who wants her to marry some old creeper and produce an heir so that he can retain control of the old creeper's army. He beats her mother in front of her to gain her complaisance. When the old creeper dies, evil stepbrother comes up with a plan B, captures a random dude with the correct hair and eye color, and forces Rowena to rape him in order to produce a child.
The ensuing rape scenes are very difficult to read. They are very detailed and unflinching. They aren't sexy or arousing in the slightest.
Eventually, Rowena decides that, no matter the consequences, she can't keep going along with this scheme so she engineers an escape for the captured prisoner. Except he's not just some random dude, he's the powerful Lord Warrick. Once free, he gathers his troops and comes back to seek his revenge.
Warrick is a strong man who is trespassed upon and cruelly violated. As such, he's completely consumed by his desire for revenge:
“Think you you know me, do you?” he bit out, clearly displeased with her now. “Think again, wench, for you will never know me well enough to guess what I am capable of, never know what demons have shaped me and made me into what I am. Best you pray I find revenge against you satisfying, for if it palls, you may well wish for death.” If he thought merely to frighten her with those words, he was diabolically ingenious.
He
declares her punishment will fit the crime. He will rape her as she raped him.
“You will be punished. Doubt it not. But my retaliation will be in kind—like for like.” He turned then to see her reaction, but he saw only incomprehension, so he explained. “As you and your brother intended to take my life if I had not escaped, yours now belongs to me, and I find it of little value. As I was treated, so will you be.
These retaliation rapes are presented just as starkly and unflinching as the previous assaults. I did not hate Warrick for these actions and, really, neither did Rowena. She never throws them back at him or asks him to
apologize and I never felt like she needed to. She's genuinely
remorseful and ashamed of what she did and takes full responsibility, regardless of the circumstances behind them, for her actions.
At this point in the story, I was positively hooked on this book but I was still highly skeptical of a satisfying romance emerging from this mess. Where do they even start?
Well, there's Warrick's bottom line, for one place:
At this point in the story, I was positively hooked on this book but I was still highly skeptical of a satisfying romance emerging from this mess. Where do they even start?
Well, there's Warrick's bottom line, for one place:
“I—I like rape no more than you did,” she told him miserably. “I have told you how sorry I am for what was done to you. When will your revenge end?” “When it no longer infuriates me to look at you. When every offense has been satisfied. When I have killed your brother for my squire’s death. When I lose interest, wench, and not before…mayhap never.”
Rowena and Warrick's consensual relationship builds gradually. There is such an
incredible push and pull between them. Neither party wants to be attracted to the
other and certainly neither wants to reveal even a scrap of vulnerability. But despite themselves, they both come to admire and crave
each other. When Rowena tells Warrick that
she will genuinely miss him, I believed her. When Warrick tells a trusted confidant that he has forgiven her and fully intends to wed
her, I believed him. I believed in their love and when they worked out
their happy ending, I was fully invested in it.
Well, I thought this romance was fascinating and unique and I loved it. Your mileage may vary.
Up Next: Slim pickings. I've been knitting instead of reading lately. But some of my reading did include male genital piercings that required me to whip out wikipedia, so there's that to look forward to.
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